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The Indian Patent Controller today rejected one of Gilead’s key patent applications, which covered the drug sofosbuvir, used to treat hepatitis C (HCV). The oral drug, which first received regulatory approval in the US in November 2013, and has been priced by Gilead at US$84,000 for a treatment course, or $1,000 per pill in the US, has caused a worldwide debate on the pricing of patented medicines. A study from Liverpool University showed that sofosbuvir could be produced for as little as $101 for a three-month treatment course.

As trade ministers negotiating the TPP convene in Singapore this weekend for high-level talks aimed at securing a deal by the end of the year, MSF warns that the vital lifeline of affordable medicines that millions depend on could be severely constrained by the pact's terms.

As TPP negotiators gather to meet for the first time since the intellectual property chapter of the secret trade agreement was leaked last week, MSF is urging countries to stand strongly against the US government’s attack on access to affordable medicines.

PARIS/NEW YORK—Without a new approach to developing and pricing new tuberculosis (TB) medicines, the global TB response will be unable to deliver the new treatment combinations needed to close the deadly treatment gap for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), warned the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris.